


The Updated Essay On Scans - "Medium Scans"

by pallasite



Series: Behind the Gloves [126]
Category: Babylon 5, Babylon 5 & Related Fandoms
Genre: Backstory, Canon Compliant, Essays, Fix-It, Gen, Psi Corps, What do P-ratings mean?, Worldbuilding, shameless self-insertion, telepaths
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-22
Updated: 2018-06-22
Packaged: 2019-05-26 22:46:58
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,792
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15011084
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/pallasite/pseuds/pallasite
Summary: Background - I posted the other essays before I had all the information, so what I said was incomplete.I finally know what's going on - so now I can explain it to you!Updated 8/5/18 for clarity, accuracy and another example.Updated again on 9/17/18.





	The Updated Essay On Scans - "Medium Scans"

**Author's Note:**

> The prologue of _Behind the Gloves_ is [here](http://archiveofourown.org/works/10153487) \- please read!
> 
> What is this series? Where are the acknowledgements, table of contents and universe timelines? See [here](http://archiveofourown.org/works/10184558/chapters/22620590).
> 
> If you like _Behind the Gloves_ and would like to send me an email, I can be reached at counterintuitive at protonmail dot com. Do you have questions? Would you like to tell me what you like about this project? Email me!
> 
> I also have an [ask blog](https://behind-the-gloves.tumblr.com/), a [writing blog](https://www.tumblr.com/blog/pallasite-writes), and a "P3 life" Tumblr [here](https://www.tumblr.com/blog/p3-life) with funny anecdotes. :)

Edited on 8/5/18 for clarity and accuracy. I added another example and more clarification to the second section, and clarified what P4s probably can and can't do.

Edited on 9/17/18 to remove a possibly confusing example (with the target information still more likely to be in the web of surface thoughts than "behind" the other information, requiring some form of digging to find).

\-----

First thing's first: I've already covered both perception of ambient surface thoughts, and so-called "light scans," extensively in earlier essays. That's all correct and I don't have anything to add to it here.

  * Ambient surface thoughts are just that - ambient. That's literally all there is, from a telepath's POV. It takes a telepath more effort  _not_ to notice than to notice surface thoughts (as Byron so correctly and helpfully points out to Garibaldi, who, as always, is being a jerk).


  * What normals call "light scans" is literally just _paying attention_. This probably shouldn't even be called a "scan" at all, because it's just  _paying attention_ , but mundanes, amirite? Everything has to sound exotic and scary. (Most mundanes can't feel someone paying attention to their surface thoughts - it's passive - but some people can, and other telepaths usually can, too. It takes a lot of skill to be able to pay attention to the thoughts to someone who can feel minds, without them feeling you're doing so. But it's rarely necessary, unless we're talking about a telepath hiding from the law, who doesn't want to be detected.)



What's a "medium scan"?

I should have explained this in the last essay, but it didn't actually occur to me to do so. >_< When people say a "mid-level" or "medium" scan, they mean an _active_ process by which a telepath is "digging" for information, but for information that's contextually or conceptually close. We're talking about information someone knows, that's not in their immediate surface thoughts, but which is contextually and conceptually related to what's going on, so it's not very "far" behind. As I'm writing this paragraph, what I'm typing is in my "surface" thoughts, but information about the book itself, the library where I'm typing this paragraph, etc., all that is related to what I'm doing here, and contextually "mapped" to the moment. (In contrast, what I had to drink on my 21st birthday (chamomile tea) isn't contextually relevant, so that wouldn't be in my surface thoughts or visible in a "medium" scan, except it just was since I literally just typed that, so oops. LOL)

Canon sucks at giving examples of this and making it clear what they're talking about, as usual - there's literally only one example given and named as such (when Bester scans Captain Stesco on Beta colony, to learn more about the murders and the possible police complicity with the murderer). They say it was a medium scan but don't say why he did it that way (versus something more thorough), what he did in any detail, or even what specifically he was looking _for_. It's just another moment for Lyta to look "pale" and "horrified" and lecture him on the legality of such things (mundane laws make it actually _illegal_ \- this is an entirely different issue, but only one that can be properly discussed once people know what's actually going on in the first place).

That's what a "medium" scan is. Since since Bester was looking for information directly related to the murders and possible police cover-up (they were literally standing in the home of one of the victims, next to her mutilated body), this information wouldn't necessarily be in the police captain's surface thoughts, but it wouldn't likely be too far behind. (Later, when Bester does need more detail, he deep scans the guy, but I discuss what _that_ means in another essay.)

That said, at this point, unlike with the surface thought stuff, canon starts to diverge from real life (that's fine, fiction is what it is), but these differences should be clearly spelled out.

**Canon**

Mid-level scans are physically uncomfortable, and leave someone dizzy and disoriented. (Bester's also holding him in place telepathically, and then he erases the man's memory of the scan, which is something entirely different and not covered in this essay. I'm just talking about "scanning" itself.)

Deadly Relations, p. 218-219:

          "Now what?" Stesco said. "You gonna chew me out for stepping on your investigation? You could've done that in front of my men."

          "Yes, I could have," Bester replied, flashing Stesco a little smile. "But I couldn't have done this." He hit Stesco with a fugue to hold him and then a midrange scan. The big man's knees went rubbery and he swayed there, mouth twitching, drool running down his chin. When Bester was finished, he murmured, "And now, let's make sure you don't remember our little moment together-" and he made a few more adjustments. A moment later, Stesco's glazed eyes suddenly began seeing again.

          "Whoa!" he grumbled. "Got dizzy for a second there."

          "I advise you to watch your blood pressure, Captain Stesco," Bester said, helpfully. "You don't seem like a well man."

          "Well, what didja want, anyway?"

          "Just to thank you for your time and to assure you that I'll report whatever I come up with directly to you."

          "Oh. Well, thanks. Guess I'll be goin' now."

          "I guess you will."

In canon, telepaths P5 and above can do this (Talia worked for the _courts_ , doing much more sophisticated things). Nothing is directly said about P3 and P4s, since canon never actually shows us anyone who is a P3 or a P4. (I do a reconstruction of canon [here](https://archiveofourown.org/works/10978596), in the first post about P-ratings and what they mean.) More on that later, at the end of this essay.

Business telepaths don't do this, since it's illegal, but Talia did do more advanced things when she worked for the courts, such as "before and after" scans of prisoners sentenced to "death of personality." (I discuss court telepaths and "before and after scans" when I get to that part of the book later. What Talia did there is much more extensive. More on that in a post I made [here](https://behind-the-gloves.tumblr.com/post/175944951608/ratings-sort-of).)

**Realistic**

Someone who can feel others' minds can feel it happen, but someone who can't may or may not. No one gets dizzy or disoriented, or starts drooling. "Feeling it" may be similar to what I said above re: intensely paying attention - it could feel kind of awkward and too intimate, unnerving maybe, but not something that would ever make someone physically ill. That's absurd.

Also: I made a mistake in using my "Where's Waldo" analogy to describe so-called "deep scans" - it's more applicable here.

This is when someone's paying close attention and looking for information that's not on the immediate surface, but is contextually related and mapped together. Unlike the "passive" watching of surface thoughts, this is _actively_ following someone's contexual/conceptual mapping to find out what he or she associates with what - and hence learn new information.

In the "target's" mind, X and Y are conceptually mapped (he or she associates one with the other), and so a telepath can actively "follow" the association web (assuming a certain familiarity with each step along the way, or else what the telepath finds out won't make a lot of sense to him or her).

(I say it's an "active" process, but it's not like what I discuss later in the updated essay on deep scans - to a strong telepath, it's not really much "digging" because associated information is kind of just _there_ , with just the slightest bit of digging for it. It's still kind of "surface.")

Example of information _behind_ other information (and not surface thoughts/associations):

I ask Bob what color his car is. He says blue, and on some level, what his car looks like is called up. On a "surface thoughts" level, I see he's got a Mazda, and the model (if I know something about cars, and this means anything to me). With a bit of digging for the information  _behind_ this, I could also know about his prior car, and about his first car (a red Toyota), and other information he's got closely associated with his cars.

Telepathy is a source of information, not a fool-proof _guarantee_ that the information is accurate. (Same as in canon - just because someone believes something to be true doesn't make it true. This is common sense.) Also, unlike in canon, it depends heavily on what the telepath is already familiar with, because otherwise what he or she sees doesn't make any sense.

What does Bob feel? He may or may not feel it, depending on how it's done and whether Bob's a telepath. If Bob is telepathic, he's likely to feel it, because "oh, you're in my mind" is a pretty distinctive feeling. If he's not, it's unlikely he would notice, unless we mean possibly "this conversation was awkward."

It also matters how the digging/scanning done, but that gets into more complex stuff I'll discuss in the next essay. Even so, the most he's likely to feel is having thought about his first car in a conversation about his current car, which, unless Bob is especially attuned to the cadence of his thoughts and this sticks out, is going to be unremarkable and forgettable. People's minds often wander to related subjects.

Advantages:

Any telepath can ask questions and see what surface thoughts show up (e.g. about his current car, when I ask a question about the car). I can ask outright about the first car (or some other subject), and Bob may or may not say things, or may want to hide things but think them anyway in the "don't think of elephants" sort of way.

Let's say something is a little taboo, and Bob doesn't want to talk about it. I can be clever and indirectly ask about the subject, but Bob will probably know what I'm doing. He may or may not answer the question aloud, but he may suspect I'm trying, indirectly, to ask about that subject.

This other way, by asking about one thing and digging for related information, Bob is unlikely to know I ever "asked," or that he ever "told" me.

It's an alternative way of getting information.

\-----

Back to the B5-'verse, this is something that [P4s would have an easier time with than P3s](https://archiveofourown.org/works/10978596), if the latter can learn to do this at all. (The earlier, linked essay on the meaning of P-ratings has also now been edited for clarity.) While those who know little about telepathy might still see this as "extracting" information, it's actually not really, since this information is still unconsciously activated. This isn't the same thing as a "deep scan.")

**Author's Note:**

> "Passive"/unintentional following of contextual/conceptual mapping can happen too... though I don't think there's any equivalent in canon. Canon's pretty narrow.


End file.
